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Catching Fish - Part 1 - The Importance of Fish

by Jerry Ousley  
8/10/2012 / Christian Living

Although I don't get to do much fishing these days, I've always liked going fishing. Just after Deb and I were married there came a time when the family was invited to her parents' house to go fishing. Her father had dug a fairly large lake on the back of their farm property and all the adult children had gathered with their spouses for this fishing excursion.

As the men busied themselves pulling out their favorite artificial lures, each seemed to have a story about what they had caught on that lure. They told their stories one by one, and it seemed that as they did, they became bigger and bigger "fish tales."

But as they spun their yarns I began noticing that not one of them was getting a bite on their artificial lures. I watched as I cast my own line but it seemed no one was doing any good.

Then I looked over at Deb's mother. She didn't have a fancy rod and reel; she didn't have a tackle box. All she had was a long cane pole, a can of red worms she had dug from the ground and a bucket. She wasn't talking to anyone but was patiently throwing her line out as far as the cane pole would allow, and one by one she was hauling in fish and filling up that bucket!

I thought to myself, "Enough of this fancy stuff. I want to catch fish!" So I borrowed a couple of her red worms and began at least getting some nibbles. I don't remember catching anything myself that day, but I'll never forget how that little woman showed up all us men with her cane pole and red worms!

Fish were very important to the Jewish people in Jesus' day. With the river Jordan, and the Sea of Galilee, it was big business. It seems that fish is mentioned quite often in the scripture. We read about the great fish that swallowed Jonah. The New Testament calls it a whale, but the Old Testament describes it as a great fish. Whichever it was it swallowed Jonah alive and for three days Jonah talked to God in the belly of that fish, repented of his disobedience, and was vomited out on dry land.

Another time Peter was concerned about paying his taxes. He didn't have the money and so he went to Jesus asking Him whether it was right to pay taxes or not. Jesus answered by saying something to the effect of, "Give to Caesar what is his and to God what is His." He then told Peter to go fishing and that the first fish he caught would have enough money in its mouth to pay not only Peter's taxes, but Jesus' taxes as well. It happened just like that.

We read about the feeding of the five thousand, the four thousand, and about two different instances where Jesus told the disciples, who made their living by catching fish, to throw their nets to the other side of the boat. In both cases, after fishing all night long without catching anything, they pulled in a great catch.

But one of the most important instances about fish took place after the first great catch; Jesus was walking along the shore of Galilee where Peter, James and John were cleaning their nets. He simply told them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:18-19). His words were so impelling to them that the Bible tells us that they dropped what they were doing and immediately began following Jesus.

The command is no less today. Jesus is still calling us to be fishers of men. While the world is wrapped up in making a living, Jesus is calling us to leave our nets and become fishers of men. This doesn't necessarily mean that we are to stop making a living. It doesn't mean that we just up and quit our jobs to win people to Christ. As a matter of fact, in today's economy, if you are fortunate enough to have a job you'd better hang on to it. But we can become wise servants of Christ. We can live our lives in such a way that we too can fulfill our commission and become fishers of men.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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